Thursday, August 21, 2014

Twins attack gone south(paw)

Maybe the Twins couldn't hit T.J. House
because they were puzzled that somebody
named Glenn Anthony goes by the
initials T.J. Or maybe it's just that he's
left-handed.

T.J. House, Wednesday's starter for Cleveland, came into Target Field with a 1-3, 4.13 record in 11 starts, with peripheral stats that are similarly blah. Naturally he shut the Twins out. Naturally, I say, because he's left-handed.

While the Twins' left-handed hitters are displaying a marked platoon disadvantage against left-handed pitchers (OPS down 63 points), so are the right-handed hitters (OPS down 35 points).

This is essentially inexplicable.

The platoon advantage is real and universal; that the Twins right-handed hitters, as a group, aren't showing it is odd and not indicative of the future. Brian Dozier for his career (1,515 plate appearances) has an OPS vs. lefties of .829, against righties of .662; there's no real reason for him to suddenly be better this season against righties (.757) than lefties (.714).